What It's Really Like to Own a Porn Company

Shine Louise Houston, 41, is the founder of Pink and White Productions, whose films and series, like "The Crash Pad," have earned accolades from the mainstream adult community and the Feminist Porn Awards.

I actually started off as a painting major. I suffered what I call my art death and I just wasn't able to paint anymore, so I took a film class. I wasn't terribly interested in doing it but a friend of mine was taking it so I said OK, because I needed an elective. And I had this moment when I got my first roll of film back and I was like, "Oh my god, moving pictures, this is the most incredible thing in the world!" I stayed in the film department and got my film degree.

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At the time the film industry wasn't exactly booming, so it was really hard to get any type of job. That was 1998. I couldn't even find an unpaid internship, it was so competitive. I wound up getting a job at [sex toy company] Good Vibes. I saw an ad in the paper. I knew what Good Vibes was so I applied. I was a sales associate and sex educator. You get really intensive training about products and sexuality.

It gets really personal with people when you're selling them these types of products. What was also interesting is that as far as video, I would get the same questions over and over again: "What can I watch with my girlfriend that's not going to piss her off?" And queer women who would ask, "What can I watch that's not all long hair and long nails? I want somebody who actually looks like they come from the [LGBT] community." Unfortunately at the time I couldn't recommend too many titles. And that happened to coincide with not quite a mid-life crisis, but it was like, Oh man I'm 30 and I'm still doing retail? So I had a moment like that and I thought, I have a film degree and about five and a half years of market research. I'm going to go ahead and make a company. That was around 2004.

Pink and White Productions

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There wasn't a good representation [in porn] of the queer community, and you don't see people of color unless they're in a niche market. I didn't want it to be niche. I just wanted to have a video that would be diversity in body types, diversity in gender expression, diversity in skin color. I have a real problem with everything in mainstream porn being in these categories, like "MILF" and "interracial." I feel like those categories are highly problematic.

It was kind of a weird right time and right place. [After my first film, "The Crash Pad," was released], all of a sudden out of nowhere film festivals were calling us, like [LGBT film fest] Outfest. I wasn't even applying to film festivals at this point. It was also kind of crazy because we had an article in [lesbian magazine] Curve and that gave us movement. Apparently the market was so dry in this category that as soon as I made this one film it was like an explosion.

[To find performers,] a lot of it was word of mouth and a few performers came from ads on Craigslist. They were friends of friends, and I knew some people from the Lusty Lady [strip club] who were in the movie. Since I was new and I hadn't actually made anything yet, I had lots of lengthy conversations with people before they were actually cast in the movie. I kind of wish I had that luxury now, but those days are gone. Now we have such a following, especially for "The Crash Pad" series website, that we have people applying left and right. If we were able to cast everybody who has put in an application so far we'd be booked for the next six years.

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"Crash Pad" is like an anthropological study of queer culture. You can see just how politics have shifted. And you can see there are trends in what people do. For a while there it was strap-ons always. Now, not really. Then we had a rage for pumps and everybody was using pumps. Some things come back and some don't. I also think there's been a steady increase in trans visibility and I think it's translated into who feels comfortable enough and empowered enough to apply. It's a snowball effect. That encourages more trans folk to apply. Also I think it's appreciated because we're not doing it in a way that is making it an exotic [fetish] thing. It's like, Oh it's just another performer.

My mom is thrilled that I own a business. My family all knows and they're very cool and very supportive. My partner knows. I think we're coming up on 10 years together. I bounce lots of ideas off of her, so in that respect she's part of the company. All my friends know and they're super supportive. There are a lot of people I've known around town who say, "Hey I remember when you were talking about making a porn company and you're still doing it!" Around town I have minor fame.

I've never [crowdfunded a film] before. "Snapshot" is actually the first feature we're going to try to do that hasn't been executive produced by an outside source. We're still a relatively small company and trying to save up $40,000 will take darn long. So we decided to try to crowdfund. One reason I think crowdfunding is going to be good for us is we get to keep company values and creative control. I get to hire who I want. Nobody's like, "Oh I don't like them, don't cast them," which is something that I ran into with a different company. I don't want to turn this around in two months. I feel like when I have an executive producer they say, "We want to make the return and we want to make it now." You want to make a return but I really want to make a film! Most likely if we get this shot in August 2015 I'm assuming it will be out in August 2016 to really polish this piece. I've got a sound designer who's just amazing who's ready to help me with the score and really bring this movie to life. I'm super excited about that.

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I hope it's still going on this trajectory because I would have to say over the last two years, I think because of a shift of technology, people are making phenomenal stuff. It's all about the technology and the fact that technology is available to a wider amount of people. It becomes more democratic and you have more voices. People are producing their own stuff and putting it up on websites and having people pay $5 for it. I think a lot of large [adult] studios are freaking out about this. You've got small agile companies able to create a work of art quickly and have the technology to distribute it themselves. This is awesome. It opens up the industry to immense artistic possibilities and really pushing what this genre is about. There's a want and a need from the audience for really high caliber work. I think indie films are able to bring that.

"Sex Work" is a weekly series that profiles women who have careers in sex-related industries — from porn stars to sex researchers and everyone in between. Check back every week for the latest interview.

Cheryl Wischhover writes about beauty, health, fitness and fashion. Follow her on Twitter.